This invention relates to the treatment of textile material in general and more particularly to an improved apparatus for the storage and reaction treatment of textile material in web form.
Devices for the storage and reaction treatment of textile material in web form for continuous passage including a transporting device for transporting the textile material on the surface of a cylinder in the circumferential direction thereof, a pleating device for pleating the textile material in several layers with folds parallel to the axis of the cylinder onto the top of the cylinder, a depositing device arranged underneath the cylinder, and a pulling-off device for pulling the textile material off at a point following the lower crest of the cylinder in the travel direction, dissolving the folded layers are known from Swiss Pat. No. 421,653 and from German Pat. No. 14,60,496. In both known designs the folds of the pleating have a relatively short length when pleated onto that part of the upper portion of the cylinder which faces the descending side when it rotates. The stack of folds is turned during the passage under the lower crest of the cylinder so that the material can be taken off from the top side of the stack of folds by pulling off device.
So that the stack of folds is maintained approximately in order and does not fall off on the side of the cylinder, additional measures are required in both above-described designs. In Swiss Pat. No. 421,653, a screen belt runs along parallel to the circumference of the cylinder so that, during its rotation, the stack of folds is held between the circumference of the cylinder and said screen belt. In German Pat. No. 14,60,496, such an additional belt which runs along on part of the revolution may also be provided, but the order of the packet of folds is predominently maintained by designing the cylinder as a sieve an subjecting its interior to under pressure so that the material is sucked onto the circumference of the cylinder and is held there in this manner.
In all devices of the type under discussion, the basic idea is to subject a continuously running textile material to a storage and reaction treatment of a given duration. For this purpose a packet of the material is formed and the packet is conducted through the storage and reaction machine relatively slowly. However, the material must subsequently be transferred from the packet into a running web again without complication.
In the known design, this requires a considerably amount of equipment since the cylinders alone are not capable of maintaining the order of the folded layers.
It is an object of the present invention to develop a device of the type described above in such a manner that a storage and reaction treatment is possible with fewer additional units while retaining the ordered position of the packet of folds.